fade to black
It's over, it's really over
Kobe really retired, it's crazy!
It's just a trip to even be doing this right now
Kobe really retiring
Call in marks, Kendrick take one
What can I say?
I mean really, what can we say?
Day by day, season by season, twenty, to be exact
Growing up watching him paint murals
Using this building as his first studio
Using L.A. as his canvas
Restoring crowns back to where they belong
Under royal banners, purple and gold
The color of royalty
My one man L.A. king
Back to Kobe, fallaway pull up
Oh! What a way to finish!
Kobe
Never meaningless could never mean less
That's what he means at this moment
All season has been his goodbye
Him to us, us to him, to the whole world
Still got magic, but he made it magical
From Compton to Crenshaw
Jack to Jeanie
We were all witnesses
To all things that was him
I mean, we shared with him the world
Kobe, inside the three point arc...
Kobe Bryant has hit a shot at the buzzer!
WOO!
Soon enough, he became our identity
If you wasn't born and raised here
Or never lived here
You probably would never understand
I'm-a make sure you do
I'm talking about the 81 points
I'm talking about the afro
I'm talking about the alleyoop to Shaq
The off-glass buzzer beater over D-Wade
The game four overtime takeover in the Finals
Kobe
I'm talking about the posterizing of Steve Nash
I'm talking about Dwight Howard's rookie year when he got baptized
You remember that
Kobe bodied him
The helicopter
The five parades
Kobe
The mashed-up gamut of emotions with you and with ourselves is so deep
I don't think nobody can break that bond
So I ask, how do empires last when there's no longer an emperor?
I mean, we got you
But at the same time, we got you
I'm talking about your blood, your sweat, your tears
Even your DNA is placed in these L.A. concretes, man
And nothing would ever replace that or erase that
Forever great in our hearts
So with that being said
Know that it's never goodbye
It's simply respect due
Our due, forever
Kobe